How will lower Colorado River flows impact Utah business, way of life?

Glen Canyon Dam is 710 feet tall and impounds the Colorado River to form the 26-million-acre-foot Lake Powell reservoir | Photo courtesy of shuvro ghose/Adobe Stock via Public News Service, St. George News

SALT LAKE CITY — Gene Shawcroft says people living in his neighborhood are so accustomed to Utah’s past water availability that they still set their sprinklers to run every second or third day, beginning in May and ending around October and November, regardless of the weather.

However, as Utah continues to suffer from ongoing drought and depleted water supplies, he believes the way residents and businesses water their lawns has to change.

“We’ve got to be in a situation where we use the water based on what our plants need … just like a certain amount of water for crops,” said Shawcroft, the chairman of the Colorado River Authority of Utah. “If we consider our lawn a crop, we don’t have to put more water on it than it needs. That’s one of the things we can do (to reduce water use) without doing cost or anything at all.”

He made those remarks Tuesday during an online panel discussion about the dwindling levels of the Colorado River, hosted by the Salt Lake Chamber. Utah water experts used the event to describe the economic importance of the river and efforts to conserve water as the river produces less and less water for the state to consume.

Read the full story here: KSL News.

Written by CARTER WILLIAMS, KSL.com.

Copyright KSL.com.

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